About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

Apple iPad: Glorified iPod Touch? Still Waiting for the iLap

Posted on January 27, 2010 by John CS Keston

Thanks to Peter Kirn at CDM for his opinion on the iPad. I tried hard to ignore the hype about this device, but gave in and listened / watched live blog footage of the event. Peter has eloquently stated his views on the device, and I have to agree with him. TouchOSC will be great on the iPad, turning it into a budget Lemur, but ultimately not much more satisfying than it is currently on the iPod Touch, unless significant updates are made specifically for the device. The two things that disappoint me the most are:

1) Apple seems to be enforcing a ridiculous patent on multitouch with plenty of prior art examples (Lemur, etc.). Google should straighten their backs and just put multitouch into Android. Multitouch belongs there, like it does on normal computers, playing piano, making love, etc. This is slowing down the pace of development and hurting the industry. A corporation shouldn’t be able to patent “multitouch” (whether it’s for mobile devices or not) anymore than it should be able to patent fingers. Multitouch is a human sensory capability. We have built-in multitouch. Are human beings inherently violating Apple’s patent? I wouldn’t be surprised. I am a mobile device after all.

2) As Peter mentions in his article, it’s a closed device. No running existing applications like Ableton Live, or MaxMSP unless stripped down versions are developed for it and sold on iTunes. I might have been interested in this if it was a multitouch device that I could use in the same way I use a laptop with the same tools available now. Imagine being able to move ten sliders in your DAW right in the interface; no external device required.

I might change my mind, but presently I see the iPad as a very pretty, but bulky iPod Touch / Kindle great for Facebook, movies, and e-books, but not something that’s likely to become a significant platform for music or sound design. I’m still waiting for the iLap. Perhaps, once the iPad is cracked and people start putting Android on it, things might get interesting. No one has registered android4ipad.org yet, but it’ll be amusing to see that happen down the road.

UPDATE: Apple claims these types of alterations to be a criminal offense. Checkout the Free Software Foundation view of the iPad – iPad is iBad for Freedom.

Bicycle Converted into a GMS Input Device

Posted on January 24, 2010 by John CS Keston

Checkout this video made by Chris LeBlanc. Chris is using LEDs attached to a rotating bicycle wheel as an input device for the GMS. Chris and I had a session recently where I showed him ow to sync the GMS up with Ableton, and the next thing you know he’s come up with a new way of using the software. Nice one, Chris!

Upcoming Ostraka Performance and New Album

Posted on January 23, 2010 by John CS Keston

My experimental music project, Ostraka with Graham O’Brien on Drums, is performing on January 27, 2010 at Big V’s in St. Paul, Minnesota. I’ll be on laptop using my custom developed application, the Gestural Music Sequencer (GMS). I’m also using my iPod Touch controlled grain-table glitch generating Max patch for another layer of texture. Chain Fight and Juhyo round out the bill.

It’s also about time I mentioned that I’m in the process of producing a new Ostraka album that features Graham O’Brien on drums. We recorded it recently at Masters Recording, formerly Flyte Tyme of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis fame. The studio was just sold again and from what I understand will be called Madison Media Institute. In any case it was an amazing facility to lay down tracks. Here’s a shot of our setup in Studio A.

Video of Fives Performance

Posted on January 19, 2010 by John CS Keston

Five Movements for Five Sampled Sounds in Five Loud Speakers from Unearthed Music on Vimeo.

This video was shot during a performance of Fives at the University of Minnesota last December. The sound quality is poor, but I think it illustrates how I was able to sort of “pour” my looped granular experiments into each of the five channels using the iPod Touch as a controller. For more about this project visit my portfolio site at www.johnkeston.com.

Google Nexus One as an Electronic Music Device

Posted on January 13, 2010 by John CS Keston

With all the Android devices appearing recently, I’ve decided it is time to upgrade my four year old Sony Ericsson K800i to a Google Nexus One smart phone (I think I’ll hold off on calling it a super phone for now) and perhaps consider using it as a controller as I have been with the iPod Touch. Another consideration is attempting to do some music software development on the Android platform. Perhaps porting the GMS, developed in Processing.org, may even be possible with the Nexus One’s 1 GHz Snapdragon (Qualcomm QSD 8250) processor and the built in video camera.

I currently have the phone in hand and will write about my impressions once I’ve had time to familiarize myself with it. It’s definitely going to take some getting used to, but so far I can say that the display is gorgeous and for the most part the functionality is wicked fast.

Music applications for Android under development include TouchOSC, and I’ve read several articles on CDM highlighting others that are available or in progress. I’m curious about Android music or sound based projects and applications that are either currently available or under development. Please comment if you’ve encountered articles or examples on this topic. After doing some research, perhaps I can start experimenting with some of the apps and writing about them here on ACB. Thanks!